


Secret Santa

by mansikka



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Christmas, M/M, Men of Letters Bunker (Supernatural), Secret Santa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-22
Updated: 2018-12-22
Packaged: 2019-08-28 03:13:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16715529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mansikka/pseuds/mansikka
Summary: Dean, Cas, Sam, and Jack, wake on Christmas morning to find a Christmas tree and gifts. But who put them there?





	Secret Santa

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Dmsilvis](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dmsilvis/gifts).



It's Christmas morning.

There might have been a time when Dean had dreamed of some perfect kind of family gathering, with everyone he loves and cares about surrounding a bunker-sized tree. That dream's been gone a while now thanks to whatever troubles have come to find them since and more almost-apocalypses than he cares to count. He'll take what he's got right here in his arms. Cas, warm and softly snoring, even if he'll argue that he's not.

Dean kisses his shoulder, bargaining with his bladder not to force him from their bed just yet. Cas grabs his arm in his sleep and wriggles back further into his warmth putting a smile on his face. Dean allows himself a few more minutes of this peace for them, indulging since it's Christmas day. When his bladder finally protests Dean grumbles his way into his robe and slippers, stumbling his way along the bunker hallways and wondering how cold it must be outside. The heating here in the bunker keeps them warm, but he's sure it must be below freezing out there. Dean shudders at the thought of all the ice on the Impala yesterday morning.

When he walks back through it's to find Cas stood in the library with his head tilted to the side looking both confused and half-asleep. Dean loves seeing him like this, guard down, hair all over, wearing one of his own shirts. It's been a while since he's felt the need to hide what they are to one another from anyone else, so it's natural to slip up behind him and wrap his arms around Cas' waist.

"Morning."

"Good Morning," Cas replies, covering Dean's hands with his own.

"You okay, Cas?" he asks as he hooks his chin over his shoulder, nuzzling against the side of his head.

"Dean. Did you do this?"

"What?" Dean asks, too busy distracting himself with kissing up the length of Cas' neck.

" _That_."

Dean feels rather than sees Cas waving his arm, following the movement to see what he's trying to draw his attention to. He snorts a kiss into his shoulder and frowns, wondering when Sam had found time to find the world's smallest Christmas tree, and buy and wrap the gifts beneath it.

"Not me," he says, though likes the idea of a sort of Secret Santa here in the bunker. "Must be Sam."

"Perhaps he planned this with Jack," Cas replies sounding pleased at the thought.

"Yeah. Maybe," Dean agrees, though right now his thoughts are firmly elsewhere, his hands sweeping beneath _his_ shirt and over Cas' stomach. "Hey, Cas. It's early. Let's go back to bed."

***

When they come back through it's to the smell of freshly brewed coffee, Dean grabbing a cup as Cas uses the bathroom, and since it's Christmas not commenting on the mess of the kitchen as Jack and Sam make pancakes.

"Morning," he says in between sips. "Merry Christmas, and all that."

"Back at you," Sam calls over his shoulder from where he's stood at the stove. "Nice idea with the tree."

"Wasn't me."

"Cas?" Sam asks as he adds another pancake to an already laden plate.

"He thought it was me. I said it must have been you two."

"If I had anything to do with it, the tree would be bigger than _that_ ," Jack replies as he plates up some pancakes and holds them out to Dean. "Merry Christmas."

"Back at you, kid."

Cas mumbles his way through to join them dressed a little more appropriately in more than just Dean's shirt. He stumbles to sit beside him, taking the bottle of syrup from Jack in thanks, helping himself to the pancakes on Dean's plate and taking a sip of his coffee. Dean rolls his eyes as he slides it across the table to him, nudging against his shoulder as he stands to pour another cup and top up the first.

"Sam says he didn't do the tree," he tells Cas when he sits back down, squeezing his thigh beneath the table.

Cas' gaze is slow as it flits between Dean, Jack, and Sam, and then back again, and he takes another sip of coffee as though it is too much effort to talk.

"I got stuff to make pancakes. Jack wanted some," Sam says as he adds another few pancakes to a plate now in the middle of the table.

"I got stuff to make burgers," Dean replies, thinking that's all he really wants for today. Something decent for dinner, a few beers, and these three people he's sat here with.

"I… didn't do anything," Jack adds, squeezing an unhealthy amount of syrup over his pancake until Cas clears his throat and shakes his head when he looks up.

"Well. Someone's gotta've put it there."

"Who? No one else comes in here but us; not unless we invite them, anyway."

"Perhaps there will be names on the gifts," Jack says around a mouthful of syrupy pancake that he really seems to be enjoying.

"I checked," Sam tells him, "no name, no anything. Unless there's something inside."

The four of them pause to look at each other, and Dean knows they're all doing the same as him; trying to work out which one of them is lying. But they work their way through their pancakes changing the subject, washing dishes and making more coffee before they make their way through to the library. The tree sits dead center on a table, the four of them approaching with both curiosity and caution to crowd around it.

"So. How do we know which is for which of us?" Jack asks.

There are four similarly sized parcels in traditional Christmas gift wrap, one draped over each leg of the Christmas tree, and a fourth propped up in front. But as he reaches out to grab one parcel Dean does a double-take, noticing four neatly pinned stockings hanging from a mirror with their names written on them.

"Uh. They weren't here just now," Sam says when he follows Dean's gaze, and Dean knows he's on edge as much as he is, both of them signaling at the same time to scope the bunker out.

When they've trailed along the bunker's halls and left Jack itching to open presents with a far more patient Cas, they return to the library with no idea what to think.

"You think these Men of Letters had some kind of… I don't even know how to finish that sentence," Dean says with a huff as he sits down beside Cas.

"Well. Might as well take a look," Sam says as he unpins the stockings and brings them to the table. "Oh. And the gifts under the tree all have our names written on underneath."

Since Dean is nearest, he hands the boxes out resisting the urge to shake them and guess their contents from their weight. He doesn't recognize the handwriting since it's written in deliberate capitals, and he's half-reluctant to unwrap anything in case there's a nasty surprise inside. But Jack looks so excited, and Cas' smile is beginning to fill his face, so he nods for them all to tear into their presents, desperate to know what's inside.

Dean has a new set of headphones he's secretly been coveting. Cas, it seems, finally has a new phone. Sam has these really sweet speakers that will replace the ones that blew on his laptop when Dean messed with the settings. And Jack has a handheld game console that Dean thinks is a Nintendo Switch complete with a couple of games.

To make the boxes a similar size whoever has packed them has filled the voids with candy that they pool in the middle of the table as they inspect their gifts in confused but pleased silence. Sam gestures for the stockings and they all wait for Dean's nod before sticking their hands in.

Between them there are oranges, an assortment of nuts, some beef jerky, and gum. There is a miniature bottle of drink that is alcoholic for Dean, Cas, and Sam, and much to Jack's chagrin, a soda for him. They have playing cards, noisy putty, mini slinkies, and blowing bubbles. For Dean and Cas there are small bottles of different flavor lube that they don't get out of the sight of Jack and Sam quick enough to stop their teasing. Sam and Jack hold up their earplugs that they have instead, and Dean thinks his face might be actually on fire for the laugh Sam lets out.

Yet between the gift wrap, gifts, and stockings, there is not one scrap of evidence to say where any of this has come from. If it wasn't for Cas' hand firmly in his still beneath the table Dean would do yet another sweep of the bunker to make sure no one is hiding out of sight.

Dean catches Sam's eye knowing he's thinking the same but then shrugs, both of them so used to thinking something sinister might be going on that it's hard to stop being on edge entirely. Though Cas finds a playlist on Youtube with Christmas songs, Jack starts asking questions about Christmas traditions, and just being sat here together with nothing they need to be doing makes everything seem festive. Dean relaxes and leans into Cas' side, peeling an orange that he quarters and shares out. Humming along to his favorite song as Cas traces patterns over his thigh with his thumb.

***

From the dimension she's in Charlie can't really see into the bunker as such, but she's present enough right now to be able to hear them talking. The device she's used to slip through and leave their few Christmas gifts this morning is out of power for another blast, which is probably a good thing. Appearing out of nowhere in the Winchester's library right now would result firstly in a range of weapons pointed at her, and secondly an interrogation. And then they'd only break out the holy water and iron to make sure it was her, no matter what she said.

Besides, she's been undercover hopping dimensions and realities for this long now, she should be numb to this feeling that she's missing home when she sees them all together and relaxed. She isn't though, not for a moment; sometimes she thinks Dean can feel her when she's watching him, holding her breath as he searches the empty room. It makes her sound like such a creeper, but even though she's powerless to do much to help them, she still feels the need to come back to check they are doing okay.

Charlie is adamant Dean notices sometimes though, hoping it brings him even half the comfort it brings her. When the urge to be close to her family gets too much to just be an invisible observer, and she steps through this _portal_ they've devised to get them between the different dimensions. She covers Dean with extra blankets when he sleeps if Cas is away, and has even stumbled into their room at the worst moment possible, seeing something a little sister really should never be seeing between her brother and his boyfriend. But no one ever needs to know about _that_.

Charlie has untangled headphones from Sam's ears when he's fallen asleep sitting up clinging on to his laptop, and even cleaned the dishes ones or twice when she got really bored. She's folded away laundry, and even a couple of times taken out the trash when it's been overflowing with beer cans and liquor bottles after really bad hunts. Thankfully, there aren't too many of those days of late.

Charlie is extra careful around this new addition to the family, Jack, because sometimes she thinks he really can see her like no one else. Stopping whatever it is that he's doing and his eyes following her around the room making the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. There is a different sense in the air around him than she gets from anyone else, and though she's convinced his intentions are good, it's really best he doesn't blow her cover right now.

One day, this technology they've developed might be open to the public, and if not the public, then perhaps hunters like the Winchesters will know enough to help them with their daily battles. But for now she is this, existing between dimensions living a half-life that she knows will eventually save countless others. And though she misses them all so deeply, with the Winchesters she is still _here_ in a way. There aren't many days that go by without one of them mentioning her at the very least.

Indulging since it's Christmas, she returns when her portal device has more power. Charlie watches out of sight as Dean makes his famous burgers, smiles and ducks her head as Cas comes into the kitchen in search of a kiss. Laughs when it's clear that both Sam and Dean are trying to cheat at cards and neither Jack nor Cas will let them. Then smiles as Christmas Day draws to a close when Dean puts on some music in his bedroom and turns Cas in his arms.

They're safe here, as safe as they can be, and if there is anything she can do from where she is to make them safer, she will. But for now Charlie is content just to watch them having a day of peace, allowing their happiness to bring peace to her as well.


End file.
